The New Initiative
by itchy magee
Summary: It's been nigh on thirty years since the Avengers defeated Loki and the Chitauri. Thor has suddenly disappeared, and Loki is back, but with a much more fearsome enemy, and something more sinister lurking in his wake. It is now up to the children of the Avengers, the heirs to their mantles, to save the earth once more. But can they band together, and become the heroes we need?
1. Chapter 1

The golden realm of Asgard, home to the great Odin, and the mighty Thor, hums with life. Its shining spires, made from the stuff of stars, reach to the heavens as they shine in the sunlight. All is well, for now. A sudden calm falls over the golden realm. A flash of green. Then only silence and darkness remain.

Randall's motorcycle roared as he pulled up to the lab to where Dr. Hank Pym had called him. He turned his bike off, and walked up to the steel double doors. The doctor had said that it was an issue of the highest importance, and seemed to Randall like the old man was about to pass out from excitement. Concern for the doctor's health was the main reason he'd left Marleen's apartment at quarter to midnight, otherwise, he would have told Dr. Pym that he was sick or something. Upon entering the lab, Randall found the entire place dark, except for the small pinpricks of light from machinery set up around the room. Using his cell phone as a flashlight, he picked his way through the lab, trying not to disturb anything, lest he'd been called to deal with an intruder. He found the doctor in his office, talking on the phone in a frantic voice.

"I assure you, _he's_ the one you want not me. He's Janet Van Dyne's _son_, for pete's sake, _and_ I've worked with him intensively for approximately two and a half years now."

"Sellin' me out doc?" Randall asked suspiciously. How was he to know just what the hell was going on here?

The doctor just waved his hand at him, dismissing him. Randall's admittedly slow thought process was having a time trying to understand what the doctor was about.

"If I have to I'll come with him, just trust me, Randall is the man for the job."

A few more "uh-huh's" and "alright's" and a "thank you", and the old doctor hung up the phone.

"Doc?" Randall asked, a little concerned.

"Wonderful news Randall," the doctor turned to him with an ear-to-ear grin.

Renee walked at her usual fast pace down one of the corridors of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s massive heli-carrier. Maria had requested her presence in the main conference room immediately. Renee and Maria had served on the same squad for the last 8 years, and in that relatively short amount of time, they'd been to hell and back. If Maria said something was an emergency, Renee was on it, no questions asked. When she reached the massive bridge of the ship, she noticed the air was tense, and that all of the crew members in the room were working at a busier-than-normal pace, giving Renee good reason to pick up her pace as she ascended the stairs up to where the main conference room was on the second floor.

She opened the door to see Maria, and a strangely dressed man standing on either side of the large polished table in the center of the room. As soon as Maria noticed her, Renee snapped to attention.

"At ease Captain," Maria relieved her from her salute, and then went on to introduce the strange man,

"Aro, this is Captain Rogers," Renee reached her hand across the table, and Aro grasped hers, as if he were unsure of the nature of the handshake.

"Captain, this is Aro, son of Thor."

"It's a pleasure to meet you sir." Renee said respectfully, withdrawing her hand from their awkward greeting.

"The pleasure is all mine," Aro said in a deep and hearty voice, "I have heard the stories of your father's bravery and prowess in battle since I was but a lad."

"Likewise," Renee replied with a grin.

Her father, the famed Captain America, had regaled her with stories of Thor, and their adventures together along with the other Avengers. These stories had been part of the reason she'd joined up with S.H.I.E.L.D. in the first place. Renee had never met the God of Thunder, nor had she known he had a son, but if she had, Aro would have fit the description perfectly. He was head and shoulders above she and Maria, and was probably taller than most of the crew members on the heli-carrier. He had a handsome face, covered in brown stubble, with shoulder-length hair pulled back in a half pony. He wore a sleeveless chest plate engraved with a variety of intricate Celtic designs, with the silhouette of a dragon in the center of his chest. His bare arms were muscular, and sliver bracers covered his forearms. Instead of a hammer like the one his father wielded in battle, Aro had an intricately designed sword hanging from his hip.

Maria drew Renee's attention to the task at hand, "Now, Captain, I'll let Aro fill you in on the situation."

A woman stood outside of a hangar on the S.H.E.I.L.D. base in the desert of Nevada, smoking a cigarette. She was tall, with bright red hair, and mischievous face. As she took another drag, she saw a figure walking towards the hangar, with a large duffle bag slung over one shoulder. As he drew closer, she saw that he was tall and wiry, with messy brown hair. As he neared her she eyed him with her scrutinizing gaze, and observed that he was handsome, though in a very unconventional way. He stopped before passing her and asked,  
"Is this the…"  
"Yep." She answered, flicking the butt to the ground and crushing it under her boot.  
As they headed in, he said,  
"I'm Erick, Erick Banner." He held out a hand to the woman on his left. She ignored it and said, smiling to herself,  
"Terra," she then picked up her pace and walked ahead of him, "Terra Stark."

The two made their way into the hangar, and found a heli-jet, waiting to take them to their destination. Once they were fastened in, the heli-jet started up, its engine roaring with infinitely sustainable power, supplied by the Starks, of course. It lifted off, and carried them across a vast expanse of desert, and then over towns and cities and suburbs, and finally out to the ocean. It seemed to Erick that the hours-long trip would have been better spent had he brought along some reading. He'd been so hard-pressed to leave that he only managed to take a week's worth of clothes, and his research (along with the majority of his father's). He eyed the stunning woman who'd greeted him. She was definitely a Stark, her haughty attitude, and her resemblance to her father's famous face would have given it away without introductions.

This was definitely Bruce Banner's son, Terra thought as she eyed him sitting there, staring out the window. She'd met Dr. Banner on several occasions when he'd come to visit and collaborate with her father on one scientific matter or another. She'd never seen his son though, he had the same thin face and wiry body that his father had, but was tall, and had a pleasing countenance, like his mother.

Finally, after two and a half hours of silence in the heli-jet, their destination came into view, the enormous heli-carrier that housed all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s operations. Erick was awestruck, he'd heard stories all about S.H.I.E.L.D.'s base, but he never expected it to look like this! The enormous flying craft was floating in a beautiful blue sky, buffeted by enormous white clouds, its giant propellers dispersing any of those unfortunate enough to come close. Terra, however, was not impressed. She had been there hundreds of times, and what's more, helped her father redesign and upgrade it. She knew it's every room and power coupling. The heli-jet gained permission to land, and they began their approach towards the enormous landing strip, already full of heli-jets and other aircraft. As their craft came lower to the landing strip, Erick could see a small but powerful looking woman standing their waiting for them. She was dressed in tight-fitting, black military garbs, covered by a black leather jacket. She had wild black hair that moved with the heli-jet's propellers.

Terra and Erick unfastened themselves and exited the heli-jet, Erick fumbling with his bag and ducking down attempting to avoid the heli-jet's propellers. The small woman began walking immediately, Terra following after her, leaving Erick struggling to catch up. As they walked across the landing strip of the carrier, Erick noticed that all of the men and women around were working at a nearly frantic pace. He knew that the reason they'd all been called in had something to do with a crisis his father had helped them with a couple years before he was born. But he had no idea exactly what was going on, and was beginning to worry. As soon as they entered the carrier, the small woman lead them through a series of halls, and finally into what Erick knew was the bridge. It was enormous, and along with a gigantic window with a stunning view of the clouds outside, there were hundreds of screens and holograms of all sizes. The woman lead them up a set of stairs along the back wall of the bridge, and into a room with a huge screen on the far wall, and a round table in the center of the room. There were several people sitting and standing in the room.


	2. Chapter 2

Randall had his boots kicked up on the conference table, and with crossed arms, watched, interested, as Commander Coulson lead the Stark girl and some other fella into the briefing room. Once Dr. Pym had explained to him the situation, he was more than eager to be on his way. They'd originally wanted Dr. Pym to go, but he was so old, his body couldn't handle the transformations. That's why he'd sent Randall. In fact, that's why he'd taken Randall on all those years ago, he was the only one Pym had found who could wear the new suit and change with ease. Randall was excited to go, this was his chance to do some real work, not just that crap from the lab.

Renee stood up immediately, and went to shake hands with Commander Coulson, Miss Stark, and the newcomer.  
"Renee Rogers." She introduced herself.  
"Erick Banner." She paused, this was the son of the Hulk? He was taller than her yes, but she felt she could best him at any physical activity they threw at them. She was interested in him particularly because they shared a similar genetic structure; their fathers were physically altered by outside forces, and had passed down their abilities to their children. But could this skinny fellow really be withholding Hulk-like power? She smiled back at Erick and said,  
"Glad to finally meet you. I believe we can finally start yes?"  
She looked over at Maria, who nodded and started over towards the screen at the front of the room.

Aro had observed the midgardians as they entered the briefing room and taken stock of them. He was in his Asgardian armor, standing in a corner in the back of the room, observing them all. This was the team of "super-humans" that was to help him? Apart from Captain Rodgers, he felt that Lady Sif and the Warriors Three could have handled this crisis better. Regardless, he was stuck with them, Sif and the Warriors and his father and even his mother were a part of this crisis, and he had to help them.

Soon, the screen came to life, and presented to them the face of Nick Fury. Both Renee and Maria snapped to attention, earning an "As you were," from Fury.  
"Commander Coulson," he addressed Maria.  
"Sir?"  
"Is the team assembled?"  
"Yes sir." She replied curtly.  
"Have they all been briefed?"  
"All but Denning and Banner sir."

Without acknowledging her, Fury turned to the rest of the group assembled.  
"I assume you have all met Aro son of Thor?"  
"Uh, yes sir." Erick said tentatively, he was no military man.  
"Yep." Randall answered casually, earning a disapproving look from Renee and Maria.  
"Aro has come to us for help. It seems that Loki has escaped his prison on Asgard and, with the help of another Asgardian by the name of Enchantress, has taken all but a few Asgardians, including Thor and Odin, captive."  
"How is that possible?" Erick couldn't help but wonder aloud.  
"Excuse me?" Fury asked, almost offended. Erick pushed on,  
"I mean, shouldn't Odin be able to stop something like that? The last time Loki took over Asgard it was because Odin was in the Odinsleep."  
"What you say is true, son of Hulk," Aro answered, "but alas, that is why I sought the help of Councilman Fury, and S.H.I.E.L.D."  
"And that is why we are answering with this team." Fury finished for him,  
"There is no doubt that Loki will want revenge on us on Earth for his failure during his last invasion. The fact that he has been able to capture the only two Asgardians capable of contending with him is cause enough for worry. And since the original Avengers are in no shape to take on this threat, you five are our best bet."

Terra grabbed a thick stack of papers from the small table she'd been leaning on, and began to hand them out to the assembled team, excepting Commander Coulson.  
"These packets consist of everything we know about the last invasion, including all information on the Tesseract, as well as all of the intel we've gathered about Asgard. I don't think I need to tell you what will happen if any of this information leaves this group of people." Fury cast a cold glance at Randall, boots still kicked up on the polished conference table.  
"Mr. Banner, I expect if you've brought any new or useful information regarding anything in the packet that you will share it with us?"  
"Yes sir." Erick answered timidly.  
"Very good." He turned over to face Maria, "Commander Coulson, I'll let you get to it."  
"Yes sir." Maria and Renee snapped to a salute as Fury's visage disappeared, and the screen went blank.


	3. Chapter 3

"Aro," Commander Coulson turned to the Asgardian, "would you mind briefing the team on the full extent of the situation?"

The demi-god stepped forward from the wall he'd been leaning on, and placed his left hand on the pommel of his sword,  
"My uncle, the traitor Loki, escaped from his prison on Asgard one Midgardian month ago. My father had, from the start, suspected the Enchantress' involvement in it. She had always loved my father, and since his marrying my mother, a Midgardian, it was not beyond believing that she was the one to help Loki to escape to spite him. My father, Lady Sif, and the Warriors Three pursued Loki and the Enchantress, but to no avail. At my mother's bequest, I came here, to Midgard, on the chance that they had fled here to hide."  
Aro's grip on his sword tightened then, and his tone became resentful,  
"I was here, when my family needed me. Heimdall called me to Asgard, but when I returned, everyone had been petrified by the Enchantress' dark magic. I was barely able to escape back to Midgard."

Aro then became silent, and stared bitterly at the ground. When it became apparent that he would not continue, Commander Coulson finished,  
"We put the rest of the pieces together ourselves. With no way to stop him from the Asgardian front, we knew we needed a way to defend ourselves."

"And here we are." Terra chimed in, grinning, "The New Avengers."  
"Couldn't we have come up with a better name?" Randall added sarcastically, "Why not, 'Team America' or 'Team Earth'?"  
"We're not a cheerleading squad, and this is not up for debate." Coulson cut him off curtly.  
Commander Coulson turned to Terra,  
"Miss Stark, you know this heli-carrier better than its engineers do. Care to show your teammates to their quarters?"  
"Yes ma'am. But first," she pulled a stack of what seemed to be credit cards from her back pocket.  
"Credit cards?" Randall said, raising one eyebrow, "so this _is_ a cheerleading squad."  
"Denning do I have to put a shock collar on you?" Coulson said exasperated.  
"These are your New Avengers contact cards." Terra said handing them out to their individual owners. "They'll grant you access to any Avengers-cleared room on the heli-carrier, as well as Stark Tower in New York. They also serve as communicators; we can contact each other from virtually anywhere on the planet."

Erick examined his contact card. It looked and felt just like a flimsy, plastic credit card, but he knew it contained millions of dollars' worth of technology within. The card displayed his name and an image of himself that he didn't recall releasing to S.H.I.E.L.D. or Stark Industries to use.  
"These are amazing." He said turning the card over.  
"Truly a marvel of your Midgardian technology." Aro said observing his card as a caveman would observe a diamond.  
"My father's idea." Terra said with a grin, "He'd intended to use them for the original team, but by the time he'd developed the prototype, the original team had disbanded."

Terra Stark then walked over to the door of the conference room,  
"Now if you'll follow me."  
The group all filed out the door, Maria leaving them to take command of the bridge. Renee snapped a salute to her commanding officer, and then followed the group down the stairs.

The S.H.I.E.L.D. heli-carrier was indeed enormous, Renee was all but used to it, and had memorized all of the important corridors and locations of the ship, Erick and Aro were continually amazed by the complexity of the craft, Randall was continually amazed by the sway of Terra's lower half. The New Avengers' quarters were located in their own wing on the fourth, and highest floor of the heli-carrier. The wing was equipped with five rooms and a small lounge with a kitchenette. Terra showed the three men their rooms, and Renee where her things had been relocated.

"If it's all the same to you ma'am," Renee said upon hearing this, "I'd rather stay in the barracks with my squad."  
"Of course Captain," Tara said politely, "but you're always welcome to this room or any room in the Avengers wing."  
"Thank you ma'am."  
"Is that offer open to anyone?" Randall sidled up to Terra, and grinned down at her with a hungry look.  
Terra gave him a look that seemed to have been stolen from her father's face,  
"Please," she said sarcastically.

She turned to the three other Avengers and said,  
"You'll find another packet on your desks in your room. They have information on yourselves and your fellow team members."  
Randall became defensive, "What kind of information?"  
"Nothing personal, just the things your fellow team members are going to need to know about you."  
"I'm sure." Randall said skeptically.  
Terra ignored him, and went to exit the Avengers Wing,  
"Read up and rest up guys, group training starts at 1900 hours."

The automatic door slid shut behind her with a hiss, leaving the four remaining Avengers staring at each other. Renee took it all in stride, and went to go collect her things to re-relocate to the barracks on the second floor of the heli-carrier. She never felt truly secure unless she was with her squad.  
Erick couldn't help but laugh inwardly as he watched Randall try not to count on his fingers the time that Terra had designated for group training. Aro, presumably, had little knowledge of Earth-time, and headed carelessly to his designated room.  
"She meant seven o'clock." Erick said walking past Randall into his room.


	4. Chapter 4

The rooms designated for the Avengers were what Erick would have expected. They were small, but most likely larger than any other crew-member's quarters on the ship. There was a bed (which was better than the cot he'd expected) a dresser, and a desk. All together in the chrome 12"x14" space, the room was snug. As Terra had said, there was a packet on the metallic desk, not as thick as the last one, but fairly impressive. Of course, he flipped through straight to his profile, to see if Terra had been truthful in how much information the others were about to find out about him. Thankfully, she had not been lying. His profile mostly covered he and his father's published works, as well as some unpublished findings (which were by no means secret). The section on his abilities as the son of the infamous Hulk was blessedly limited. It merely read:

_"Erick Banner genetically inherited Bruce Banner's ability to transform into a Hulk-like being. While in the Hulk-like state, Erick Banner possesses the same strength, speed, stamina, and restorative abilities of the Hulk."_

His curiosity soon got the better of him, and he decided to read up on the relatively famous daughter of Tony Stark. After flipping through the pages of her section, Erick found himself very impressed. She'd graduated from high school at 14 years old, earned her bachelor's degree in technical science at 16, and her masters in engineering at 18. Now at only 22 years of age, Terra Stark was the most accomplished person of her age since her father before her. Along with helping her father redesign the heli-carrier on which they rode, and designing the new miniature Arc Reactors that powered it, Terra had gone on to develop her own new line of weapons tech based off of the Chitauri weapons salvaged after the invasion. He read on to see that she would be fighting alongside her fellow Avengers as the Iron Valkyrie.

"This is going to be a hoot and a half." Randall said to himself reading through the packet on his teammates. He scanned through all of the sections on his fellow teammates, only looking for the sections on their abilities. He was especially intrigued by Erick's entry.  
"Hulk 2.0 eh?" He was looking forward to taking this big green rage monster on. He flipped through the rest; Iron Girl, Fire God, Chick Captain America. They didn't really seem that special.

Renee sat on her cot in the second floor barracks, and flipped through the pages of the New Avengers packet. She already knew about Terra Stark and her Iron Valkyrie suit, as well as Aro's godlike strength, ability to fly, and control over fire. However, she was intrigued by Randall's profile. She'd only heard tell of the scientist that could shrink or grow on command, as well as Randall's mother, the famous Wasp, but working alongside Dr. Pym's protégé would be something. She found herself drawn in to the pages covering his research of Pym particles, and his ability to shrink different items, and to communicate with ants. Why hadn't S.H.I.E.L.D. already been using any of this?

Aro was not one for reading, but couldn't resist learning about his teammates. All of their profiles fascinated him. An Iron Valkyrie, a man who could become a Giant, another who could become a great troll-like beast, and the daughter of the great warrior Captain America. For the first time since fleeing to Midgard, Aro felt that, perhaps, there was a chance at rescuing his family, and putting Loki down for good.


	5. Chapter 5

The New Avengers were all still nose-deep in their Avengers packets, or in Randall's case, the fridge of the kitchenette, when their New Avengers communicator cards began to beep frantically. Aro and Randall sprinted out into the main hall of the Avengers wing frantically, looking for the main threat, but it was Erick, who calmly exited his room and looked at them, startled. He pressed the corner of his card, which silenced it, and then pointed towards the main door,  
"It's 7 o'clock… time for training?"

Randall and Aro tried for a good two minutes to figure out how Erick had silenced his communicator card. Finally, Erick held his hand out to Aro,  
"May I?"  
The demi-god handed his beeping card over, and Erick pressed one of the corners so that Aro could see. He handed the silenced card back over, earning him a,  
"Many thanks, son of Hulk." From Aro.

Erick turned to Randall, who was still staring dumbly at his beeping card, and held his hand out for his communicator. Randall stopped his fumbling, and squinted his eyes at Erick. He handed his card over with a,  
"You're a real smartass you know that?"  
Erick silenced the card and froze,  
"What?"  
Randall grinned at him smugly, and took back his card,  
"But I'm going to enjoy taking you on Hulk 2.0."  
Erick gulped,  
"Wh-what?"

When the trio found the Avengers' designated training facility, they were all impressed. The room occupied two of the carrier's four stories, and was about as wide and long as it was tall. The walls were a bright white, and there were numerous obstacles throughout the room.  
"Oh good, you found the place." Terra walked in behind them, grinning.  
"How do you like it?" she asked, holding her arms out.  
"It's amazing." Erick said still staring at the room before him.  
"Truly," Aro agreed, doing the same.  
"It's big." Randall said looking down at the redhead before him.  
"It's worth more than you are." Terra said, unamused.  
"Um, Miss Stark?" Erick asked, a nervous look coming across his face.  
"Terra, please." Terra held up her hand.  
"Terra," Erick said looking away from the room, and catching her eyes. They were indeed captivating. He pulled himself away, and said nervously,  
"D-do you really think it's a good idea to have super-powered playtime on a multi-billion dollar craft flying thousands of feet in the air?"  
"Come here," Terra lead him over to the nearest wall, and patted it, "vibranium-reinforced steel. This whole ship's made out of it."

Erick's eyes widened,  
"How did you get that much vibranium? _Where_ did you get that much vibranium?"  
"Certainly not from Wakanda." Terra said almost bitterly, "My father bought out a couple of small vibranium mines in Africa. We get, perhaps, six grams of vibranium every year. _This_, however," she gestured to the training room, and the ship as a whole, "came from whatever S.H.I.E.L.D. and Stark Industries salvaged from the wreckage of the failed Chitauri invasion."  
"But how did you get enough?" Erick was still amazed.  
"Vibranium is surprisingly versatile, when heated to a certain temperature…"  
"Hey!" they were interrupted by an obnoxious voice from behind them, "Are we gonna train or what?"  
The two turned to see Randall with his arms crossed, looking at them impatiently. Terra glared at him, then smiled grimly,  
"I suppose it is."  
She walked to the center of the room, and held out her arms. From somewhere on her back, a dark green, metallic substance began to cover her body, leaving her head alone exposed. She stood before them, in what was undoubtedly the Iron Valkyrie suit they'd heard about. Erick and Renee were indeed impressed, Randall was even impressed, but more so by the way the suit hugged those curves.  
"So this is the Iron Valkyrie." Aro said in wonder.  
"Right you are sir," Terra said proudly, with a low hum of her suit, she rose up to hover a few feet above the ground.  
"I based the whole thing off of Chitauri weapons tech. The suit responds to my neural impulses, rather than verbal command. The Iron Valkyrie is the same basic design as my father's Iron Man suits, however, the Valkyrie sacrifices strength for speed and stealth. Though," she grinned, "I've still got a few heavy-hitters up my sleeve."  
Erick imagined that she probably meant that literally.  
"Come on guys," Terra said enthusiastically after a moment of silence, "suit up!"

"Finally," Randall said, beginning to take off his clothes.  
"Denning," Terra said, incredulously, "what are you doing?"  
"Don't worry sweetheart, you'll get to see me in the raw later. For now," he revealed the dark red suit beneath his black t-shirt he'd been wearing, "I'm just doin' like you said."  
Aro unsheathed his blade, and took to hovering a few feet above the ground as Iron Valkyrie was. Renee was already in her S.H.I.E.L.D.-issued training uniform. This left Erick. He had always felt awkward about changing, _especially_ in front of an audience, but he swallowed his fear, and closed his eyes, beginning the deep-breathing exercises that he'd been doing since he was a small child. He focused all of his energy inward, and soon felt the heat rising up from his chest, and felt his body begin to change and grow, he ignored the gasps of wonder from several of his teammates.

"You're blue?" was the first thing he heard.  
Randall stood there, a look of confusion and disbelief on his face. Indeed, the son of the Hulk had, not the famous green hide of his father, but a deep blue hide all his own.  
Terra was also interested in this new development. She was intrigued not only by the surprising skin color, but by how little Erick's face had changed. He stood there, almost a foot taller than he'd been moments ago, twice as large, bound in muscle, his shirt torn and laying on the ground, his trousers clinging to his enlarged thighs, but his face, uncannily the same.

Erick just shrugged his enlarged shoulders at his teammates' confused looks.

Randall gave a mischievous grin, and announced, "Game on!"  
He reached down and pressed a button on the small device on his belt. With an unsettling stretching noise, Randall grew and grew, until his head was just below the ceiling twenty feet above them. He looked down at his teammates, a wide grin on his face,  
"You like?"  
His teammates below him barely came up to his knee.  
"That's….amazing." Renee said, her eyes wide.  
"And don't worry, Stark," he said raising an eyebrow, "I can go bigger."  
"Sixty feet, your report said." Renee pulled the attention back towards her.  
"Yep," Randall said curtly, not looking at her.

"Alright," Terra announced, as a helmet materialized over her head. The deep green metal stopped at the crown of her head, where a gold, translucent mask covered the rest of her face.  
"Here's how it's going to go." Her voice sounded almost metallic, as it filtered through her suit. She was cut off, however, before she could begin, when Randall suddenly said,  
"Hey Hulk." No sooner had Erick looked up, than a giant hand swooped down and backhanded him across the room, "Think fast!"  
The blue hulk flew across the room, and crashed into the far wall, 25 feet away.

All at once, Renee, Terra, and Aro were on Randall's case.  
"Denning, what the hell?!" Terra flew the twenty feet up to get right in his face.  
"Stay your hand giant man!" Aro pleaded as he flew up to join Terra, "The son of Hulk is our ally!"  
"Y'all better get out of the way, because here comes big blue." Randall said with a look of deranged glee on his face.

The rest of the team quickly turned to see Erick pull himself up from the ground. He shook his head with a growl, and stood up slowly. Fearing the worst, Terra hovered towards him, tentatively,  
"Erick, are you okay?"  
He rubbed his face with a large blue hand, then looked up at the group… and shrugged.  
As he slowly walked back towards them, Renee said, stunned,  
"Denning, I think you broke him."  
"I think you're right," he replied, the snark gone from his voice.  
Once he neared the group, Terra felt it safe to approach Erick,  
"You okay buddy?" she asked in a soft, low voice. Erick's brilliant blue eyes met hers.  
"No hard feelings Banner." They heard Randall say, nervously, "It wasn't personal, just wanted to have a good old fashioned brawl. You know."  
Terra saw that Erick was, indeed, not going to freak out and beat anyone up, so she left his side, and went to address the rest of the team.

"We _were_ going to do some simple exercises, but now," she glared up at Randall, "it appears we need to do some trust building activities."  
"What is this grade-school?" Randall asked incredulously.  
"Well since we can't trust you to not pick fights with your fellow teammates, how are we supposed to trust you to have our backs in an actual fight?" She demanded of him.  
Randall remained quiet, but grudgingly so.  
Terra sighed, clearly agitated, and growled, "Dismissed."


	6. Chapter 6

What the hell! Randall paced across the tiny space of his room aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. heli-carrier. He admitted now that maybe backhanding Banner across the training room wasn't that great of an idea. But what the hell, that was his way of expressing his excitement! There was nothing wrong with that, Banner was the one who was acting weird. Wasn't he supposed to be the son of a giant green _rage_ monster? Where was all the rage? This big blue softie was more like the son of a small greenish blob of boring.

Randall was a fighter, plain and simple. When he walked into a bar or a party, _he_ was the alpha dog; especially since he started "borrowing" that suit from Dr. Pym. Randall supposed that fighting was his way of expressing himself. Yeah. Like, he was an artist, and the other guys face was a piece of paper to smear blood-paint all over. Okay, maybe that was a bad analogy, but it only proves the point that Randall was one for fighting, not words.

He sighed, frustrated, and exited his room to go raid the kitchenette. There _had_ to be some alcohol in there. Maybe an old scotch, or some celebratory champagne even? He rooted through the empty cabinets and then the fridge, which was full of mostly just health foods and juices. Christ, he couldn't even get a soda in this place! Suddenly, Randall remembered something he'd brought with him. He stalked back to his room, where he rooted through his large duffle bag. The doctor had requested that Randall take copies of some of Pym's published works on Pym particles and communications with insects to try to sell to S.H.I.E.L.D. while he was here. The good doctor had even sent with him a model of his size-changing ray prototype, but all Randall cared about right now was whether or not he remembered to pack his emergency kit. Jackpot! Randall pulled the six pack of beer out of his bag and kissed it, overjoyed to have remembered to bring them. Upon realizing that his beer was a little too warm to drink, he took it down to the kitchenette to store in the fridge.

Terra sat in her room, which was located on the first floor. She and her father had installed Stark-class quarters close to where all the important parts of the ship were, just in case something went wrong. Right about now, Terra was second guessing this New Avengers initiative. Between Randall picking fights, Erick _not_ fighting, and the immense threat that faced them, Terra was starting to wonder if they should even bother trying to evade the inevitable. She shook her head, she was being unreasonable. She had no reason to believe that the group wouldn't pull through in a fight. After all, it had only been their first time suited up together. Terra looked at the clock that sat next to her slightly-larger-than-the-rest bed. The bright green numbers read 10:45. It had been a long and tiring day indeed. She stood up, and changed into her night clothes (which were little more than a sports bra and panties), and, turning off the light, crawled into bed. However, in the dark of her room, she did not find rest. Terra's mind wandered over the events of the last week.

Terra had been busy that night, at the Stark Tower in New York City, working on the fine tunings of the Iron Valkyrie suit. She had been paid a surprise visit by two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, at one in the morning, in her private lab.

S.H.I.E.L.D. had issues with privacy.

One of the two agents had slapped a manila folder on one of the workbenches, and told her to report to the New York S.H.I.E.L.D. base the following morning for debriefing. Along with a warning to ensure that the contents of the manila folder remained confidential. Terra demanded to know how they'd gotten past JARVIS' security systems, but the two ignored her as they entered the elevator and descended the tower. Terra scowled after them for a moment, then looked down at the folder. She opened it up to find only a small disc in a white paper sleeve. She immediately recognized it as her father's technology; a super-secure form of data containment that made it impossible to transfer data off of it. It also had a fail-safe automatic data-deletion program.

The data had simply been an official S.H.I.E.L.D. report covering the events of the Chitauri invasion of her father's day, as well as the official version of Aro's story and plea for help. When she reported to the S.H.I.E.L.D. base in upstate New York, she was unsurprised to hear that they needed her help as the Iron Valkyrie, as well as a representative for Stark Industries. She'd asked why they wanted her instead of her father, who'd been an Avenger for years, and had been a crucial part of Earth's victory in the Chitauri invasion. They replied by bringing up her father's continually worsening mental instability (much to Terra's chagrin), as well as her ability to be more effective in a fight. Point taken. They had then slapped another folder in front of her, introducing her to their New Avengers initiative. Terra was a bit insulted, as well as honored, as she flipped through the profiles of their target team members. She was insulted that they would try to recruit Dr. Bruce Banner and Captain Steve Rogers and not her father. Her father had been a pivotal member of the Avengers! He'd even helped S.H.I.E.L.D. to _start_ the Avengers for Christ's sake! They had even listed an old doctor by the name of Hank Pym, who had been an on-again-off-again, later member of the Avengers. Any of her father's 'mental issues' had been from serving the human race as a life-long Avenger!

However, the fact that they would recruit _her_ alongside such a prestigious line of members was an honor that Terra would not scorn. On that note, Terra had also not been surprised to see profiles on two of the children of the Avengers, the son of Dr. Banner, and the daughter of Captain Rogers, who, conveniently enough, was already an accomplished agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

For the next 72 hours, Terra worked alongside a specialized group of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to locate and recruit all of the target members of this New Avengers team. It had been tiring, as well as frustrating, trying to convince the original team members to come out of their retirement and to fight for Earth once more. Terra was a little upset by the reasons that some of the older members gave her. Captain Rogers had rejected her plea for help on the premise that he and S.H.I.E.L.D. had had a falling out years ago, and that he was trying to live out the rest of his days with his wife in peace. The Mrs. Banner had told one of Terra's agents that they hadn't seen the Hulk for twenty years, and that Dr. Banner would like it to stay that way.

After hours of frustration at all their failure, and the unbelievable stubbornness of the original Avengers, Terra was given a small bit of hope. Their team had gained contact with Dr. Pym, and, while he had turned down the invitation, he was desperately trying to send someone else in his stead. Terra had taken over the call, and had heard the doctor's enthusiastic recommendation of his protégée, Randall. Terra had been pleased to hear that this man was supposedly the son of Janet Van Dyne, who had served the West Coast Avengers as Wasp. Terra had agreed to allow Randall Denning to come serve the New Avengers, on the condition that Dr. Pym send every bit of information he had on Denning. Soon after that, their team was contacted by the son of Bruce Banner, Erick. He had agreed to go serve the New Avengers in his father's stead. Roughly 90 hours after Terra's original visit from S.H.I.E.L.D., the young Stark sent their complete team report to the recently instated director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Director Maria Coulson.

Terra rolled over in bed, her mind comforted by the memory of her recent success.  
'Yes,' she thought to herself as her mind slowly drifted into sleep, 'I think we'll be okay…'

No sooner had Terra closed her eyes, than the alarms went off.


	7. Chapter 7

Aro, Erick, and Randall all emerged from their rooms simultaneously. Erick noticed that Randall seemed a bit…wobbly. He looked down at his communicator card, which was beeping madly along with the carrier's alarms, obnoxiously dissonant. He and his two fellow New Avengers ran out into the main hall of the fourth floor, and saw several of the heli-carrier's crew members sprinting down the hall past them. Figuring that they would lead to the source of the commotion, the three sprinted after them, Randall stumbling a bit as they went. Suddenly, Erick noticed a muffled voice coming from his pocket. He reached in, and removed his card, which now had the image of Terra's face, her piercing gaze staring up at him.  
"…assemble! Are you guys listening?"  
Erick raised his hand to signal to Aro and Randall to stop, and lifted the card up to his face.  
"Terra?" he asked.  
"Finally!" she said exasperated, "Avengers Assemble! To the bridge!"  
"Right," Erick said, awkwardly. He turned towards Aro and Randall,  
"We need to go to the bridge."  
"Who made you...the boss." Randall sounded a little like he was going to barf on the "boss".  
After a moment of awkward silence, Aro broke it,  
"Lead on, son of Hulk."

Renee was the first to arrive on the bridge. Maria was standing, hands clasped behind her back, staring grimly at the holoscreen before her. She stood a head shorter than Renee, but the Captain knew that she was not a force to be trifled with. Renee snapped to attention,  
"Ma'am."  
Maria gave her a look, and Renee immediately relaxed, coming to stand next to her sister in arms. The holoscreen showed several images of the same commotion taking place in the streets of a crowded city. Some of the images were news reports, and text appeared on top of their images revealing that the calamity was taking place in New York City, of all places. Renee squinted at the various images, trying to discern the cause of the commotion. Before she could discover anything, the rest of the New Avengers entered the bridge, lead by Terra.  
"Director Coulson." She addressed Maria, who's back was still turned towards them.  
"Avengers," she addressed them before turning around, "the enemy has made the first move. Your first assignment as the New Avengers is in New York. Your target is a group of humans, six that we know of so far, armed with alien weaponry. Your primary objective is disarming and capturing these terrorists. Preserve the weapons if you can. Your secondary objective is protecting civilians and assisting military forces. Dismissed."  
She then turned back around to face the holoscreen.

Renee took the lead and headed towards the exit at a jog,  
"Avengers, with me."  
The rest of the team followed Renee, Aro keeping perfect pace with her, the rest of the team struggling to keep up. She lead them all the way to the top of the ship, to the landing strip, where they followed her past the heli-jets, as well as the fighters, and to a sleek and impressive looking black jet, barely visible against the night sky.  
"There's my baby girl." Terra said with a grin as she took the lead once they approached the jet. As she neared the jet, a ramp lowered itself, like a great mouth, from its under-belly. The team boarded the craft, to see that its inside was furnished much like that of an expensive car. Black and gray leather seats lined the walls, where Erick and Renee recognized a lot of the equipment lining the inside of the jet as everything and anything you would need on missions of this nature.  
"Welcome to Dark Eagle One lady and gents," Terra said in a mock-pilot voice, as she made her way to the cockpit,  
"please strap yourselves in and hang on for dear life."  
She strapped herself into the pilot's seat, and began pressing buttons and flipping switches. Soon the ramp rose up with a hiss, and the Dark Eagle began its ascent into the sky.

The rest of the team scrambled to find a seat, and to strap themselves in, as Aro stood, in awe still staring at the ship around him.  
"Amazing!" he said, "A great, steel eagle that you can ride _inside_! The closest _I_ have ever come to such a feat was in Alfheim once…"  
Aro was cut off when the plane suddenly banked left, throwing the demi-god into the side of the ship, slightly damaging some of the equipment.  
"I said buckle up back there!" Terra yelled at hearing the crash.  
"Aye," Aro said, grabbing his head and clambering into the nearest seat.  
"Hold on now guys, we're about to travel from California to New York in about ten minutes."  
"What?" what the collective response from the rest of the Avengers. However, before they could get an explanation, Terra shouted back,  
"Jumping in three, two, one!"  
To everyone's surprise, the jet seemed to slow dramatically. Suddenly, they were all slammed into the backs of their seats as the jet took off at what had to have been hundreds of miles an hour. How they didn't crash into any other planes, Erick had no idea. Just as Terra predicted, they stayed at that super-speed for roughly ten minutes. Once they finally slowed to a reasonable speed, the New Avengers looked out of their nearest windows to see the lights of the sleepless city. They tried to locate the threat through their slight disorientation, but Renee was the only one able to focus through the blurred lights in her vision.

Suddenly they were all distracted by the sound of retching coming from the back of the jet.  
"Dammit Randall!" Terra shouted from the cockpit. "You _are_ drunk! I knew it!"  
He waved his hand at them, and then sat back up, wiping his mouth off with the back of his hand.  
"I'll be fine," he said much like a drunk person would, "turst me."  
"When this is over your ass is cleaning that up." Terra growled at him flipping some switches.  
Renee had unfastened herself, and walked to the cockpit to stand behind Terra.  
"Have you located the threat yet?"  
"Working on it captain." She said continuing to flip switches and press buttons.  
After a moment, she exclaimed triumphantly, "Aha! Found 'em!"  
She was looking at a computerized map of the city, and had pinpointed the location of several red dots just a few blocks away from them.  
"Alright captain, we're going in hot." She said heading over to where the threat was,  
"Tell Banner and Denning to suit up. Aro is with me."  
"Terra, we should really-"  
"No time cap! I'll drop you all in on one side, and then come around on the other with Aro and take them from behind, and in the air."  
"But we should really-"  
"Go Cap Go!" she yelled as the location of the threat came into view.

Renee heard the ramp opening up, and grudgingly went to take what control she could of the situation.  
"Alright men, suit up! Aro, you're with Stark."  
"Aye."  
"Banner, Denning, you're with me."  
Renee, stood in the mouth of the ramp, watching the city fly by beneath her, as her fellow Avengers readied themselves for the fight. She watched for the right moment to jump, her piercing blue eyes like that of a hawk, searching for its quarry. The Eagle banked to the left, revealing the threat on the street below them. The Eagle made to fly over the battlefield, and Renee held her hand up to signal for Banner and Denning to be ready. She gave the signal, and the three of them sprinted out of hangar, and jumped thirty feet to the street below.


End file.
